Wednesday - September 26, 2018
My day started at 5:30 am. I hear my alarm blaring and while it wanted to punch myself on the face because it was so early, I didn't because my bleary brain remembered that I was getting up this early to go on vacation, and not to work. Win!
Yes, we're going to Europe - again - but this time, to all new to me countries such as Germany, Austria, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic. I've never been to any of those places and seeing new parts of the world is one of my favorite things. We've always wanted to do a river cruise - but it's always been prohibitively expensive. We were planning on doing a transatlantic cruise that sailed from London, but I saw a Gate 1 sale in Travelzoo's Top 20 Deals that slashed the price of some of their sailings in half - and we jumped on it. In doing research, we didn't find a lot on it. Gate 1 is a travel agency - and a few years ago, they decided to get into the river cruise business by buying their own river boats and running their own river cruises. So everyone on the river cruise - the chef, the captain, the cruise director and the waist staff - they all work for Gate 1. The reason they could be more affordable is because it doesn't come with frou frou extras - such as unlimited alcohol (no good to me anyway) and they don't have as many options when it comes to excursions. There's always a guided tour in each city we arrive in - but that's THE tour. There are also some optional excursions you could pay extra for - so you pick and choose what you want if you'd prefer something different - but that's why their cruises are more affordable than Viking's or Avalon's. We're pretty simple people, and we'd never done a river cruise before, so even if it's terrible, we wouldn't know the difference, and as we're self sufficient and we don't drink, the lack of frills don't bother us.
The drive to John Wayne Airport was in morning traffic. We made it in time for boarding - and that's about it - even with the flight delayed. We cut it a little too close because we forgot to account for morning traffic. It made a 15 minute drive closer to a 40 minute drive. But with TSA PreCheck, we flew through the security line - which was amazing - because it was SO much easier and waaaay less stressful than LAX's.
Our flight to Houston was completely full - and other than us, it seemed like everyone was on a business trip. People were mostly in suits, and a lot of them were working on PowerPoint presentations on their laptops. The lady I sat next to was annoying - she kept encroaching in my space and when I got up to use the restroom, she put my tray table down, put her drink and snacks on my table, and dumped her books and magazines on my seat. Then she looked surprised when I came back. Uh, lady - we're in a flying airplane. Where did you think I was going to go????
Because our flight to Houston was delayed, the 1 hour and 20 minute layover shrunk to arriving 6 minutes before boarding for our flight to Munich began. We rushed out of our plane and power walked from one end of the terminal ALL the way to the other end of the terminal. I thought I was going to get shin splints from all the power walking! We stopped for the fastest bathroom stop ever, and were just about the very last people to board our flight - but because it's an international flight with baggage allowances, there was actually space in the overhead bins for our backpacks - winning!
The lady in front of us though, she stuck her ugly shoes under her seat, which was actually our luggage storage space - and proceeded to make out with her boyfriend through the flight. She was not our favorite. Especially since she was Chinese - and we are not people who do PDA and totally judge other Chinese people who exhibit PDA. Other than her, our seats were really good for economy. I did a ton of research before we booked our flight and seats and picked out the one row of three that had a ton of legroom. It was wasted on me because I'm so short, but we had plenty of space to stretch our legs out, to move around a bit and stretch our backs out too. We weren't confined to a teeny space, which made the long flight so much more pleasant. I ended up taking my backpack down and just using it as a footrest - which was much more comfortable for my short legs.
Yes, we're going to Europe - again - but this time, to all new to me countries such as Germany, Austria, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic. I've never been to any of those places and seeing new parts of the world is one of my favorite things. We've always wanted to do a river cruise - but it's always been prohibitively expensive. We were planning on doing a transatlantic cruise that sailed from London, but I saw a Gate 1 sale in Travelzoo's Top 20 Deals that slashed the price of some of their sailings in half - and we jumped on it. In doing research, we didn't find a lot on it. Gate 1 is a travel agency - and a few years ago, they decided to get into the river cruise business by buying their own river boats and running their own river cruises. So everyone on the river cruise - the chef, the captain, the cruise director and the waist staff - they all work for Gate 1. The reason they could be more affordable is because it doesn't come with frou frou extras - such as unlimited alcohol (no good to me anyway) and they don't have as many options when it comes to excursions. There's always a guided tour in each city we arrive in - but that's THE tour. There are also some optional excursions you could pay extra for - so you pick and choose what you want if you'd prefer something different - but that's why their cruises are more affordable than Viking's or Avalon's. We're pretty simple people, and we'd never done a river cruise before, so even if it's terrible, we wouldn't know the difference, and as we're self sufficient and we don't drink, the lack of frills don't bother us.
The drive to John Wayne Airport was in morning traffic. We made it in time for boarding - and that's about it - even with the flight delayed. We cut it a little too close because we forgot to account for morning traffic. It made a 15 minute drive closer to a 40 minute drive. But with TSA PreCheck, we flew through the security line - which was amazing - because it was SO much easier and waaaay less stressful than LAX's.
Our flight to Houston was completely full - and other than us, it seemed like everyone was on a business trip. People were mostly in suits, and a lot of them were working on PowerPoint presentations on their laptops. The lady I sat next to was annoying - she kept encroaching in my space and when I got up to use the restroom, she put my tray table down, put her drink and snacks on my table, and dumped her books and magazines on my seat. Then she looked surprised when I came back. Uh, lady - we're in a flying airplane. Where did you think I was going to go????
Because our flight to Houston was delayed, the 1 hour and 20 minute layover shrunk to arriving 6 minutes before boarding for our flight to Munich began. We rushed out of our plane and power walked from one end of the terminal ALL the way to the other end of the terminal. I thought I was going to get shin splints from all the power walking! We stopped for the fastest bathroom stop ever, and were just about the very last people to board our flight - but because it's an international flight with baggage allowances, there was actually space in the overhead bins for our backpacks - winning!
The lady in front of us though, she stuck her ugly shoes under her seat, which was actually our luggage storage space - and proceeded to make out with her boyfriend through the flight. She was not our favorite. Especially since she was Chinese - and we are not people who do PDA and totally judge other Chinese people who exhibit PDA. Other than her, our seats were really good for economy. I did a ton of research before we booked our flight and seats and picked out the one row of three that had a ton of legroom. It was wasted on me because I'm so short, but we had plenty of space to stretch our legs out, to move around a bit and stretch our backs out too. We weren't confined to a teeny space, which made the long flight so much more pleasant. I ended up taking my backpack down and just using it as a footrest - which was much more comfortable for my short legs.
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| I do not need this much room...but I'll take it! If you can't tell, there's still about a feet of space from my feet to the seat back in front of me. |
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| those ugly white shoes...those are not ours. They belong to the PDA lady sitting above them 😑 |
I’m a boring flier. I generally don’t watch the new movies the way everyone else does because I’d prefer to sleep, so I look for short shows or something I've already seen before so my brain can relax. I ended up watching a few episodes of Brooklyn Nine Nine, some Tiny House Hunters and that home improvement show by those Magnolia people at Target. Otherwise, I read, dozed, and listened to an audiobook (and dozed). I got some sleep, which I sorely needed as I’d been running on very little sleep leading up to the trip and I was exhausted before my vacation even began.
Dinner was...edible It was like orange chicken...but not. The portion was also fit for a 5 year old. My poor dad was so freaking hungry through the flight - and I got a bit peckish too. Note to self: bring snacks on the flight. "Breakfast" was a snack. "Snack" = croissant shaped bread that did not have the texture or taste of a croissant. And a carton of yogurt. Considering we'd been hungry for 5 hours, it didn't hit any spots at all. It was like...a taunt.
Dinner was...edible It was like orange chicken...but not. The portion was also fit for a 5 year old. My poor dad was so freaking hungry through the flight - and I got a bit peckish too. Note to self: bring snacks on the flight. "Breakfast" was a snack. "Snack" = croissant shaped bread that did not have the texture or taste of a croissant. And a carton of yogurt. Considering we'd been hungry for 5 hours, it didn't hit any spots at all. It was like...a taunt.
I booked our car through Auto Europe, and even with premium insurance, which I get is a scam, but I wanted because I was going to be driving in a foreign country with no speed limit, it was pretty reasonable. Because we arrived during Oktoberfest, a lot of the employees at Europcar were wearing lederhosen and dirndls. It was cool!
It was going to be a 2 hour drive to Hohenschwangau from Munich, and as we were going to be roadtripping for almost a week, we stopped off at a supermarket for provisions. After figuring out how to obtain a shopping cart from a very nice English speaking German lady, we bought a bunch of snacks and water that I deemed necessary for the next week.
My favorite thing? The bakery section - because they had a system that no one touched your bread but you - to get each pastry/bread you had to use a shovel to push it into a chute for you to pick up - there was no space for anyone to stick their grimy hands onto the baked goods - and I wish that Vons had this too.
My mom became totally obsessed with these GINORMOUS figs they had at the market - and with good reason, because they were so freaking big! I was still hungry, so we got some croissants and pretzels and bread because I love carbs. I literally started eating a Bavarian pretzel the minute we walked out of the market. It's not the best, but it was good. They only seem to have salty pretzels, and they're cold - they're nothing like the hot buttery goodness that we can get at Wetzel's. But as bread, it was good - it had a chewy exterior and a soft and pillowy interior. But I missed the sweet toppings. And the fact that we eat our pretzels warm at home.
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| I'd eaten most of it before I thought of taking a picture memoralizing my first German pretzel |
The drive from Munich to Hohenschwangau is GORGEOUS. Driving in Germany also isn't too hard - the roads are clean and in good conditions, they're well labeled, and we didn't encounter any crazy drivers. But as we drove into the countryside, I could see why kings wanted to live there - the Bavarian Alps, the fields and pastures, the lakes - it was BEAUTIFUL. While I drove, my mom watched the scenery and took photos. It looked like something out of a fairytale. We took one lane country roads into Hohenschwangau, and passed through numerous little villages with their adorable houses with windox boxes, profusions of flowers, and everything we saw was adorable and well kept. Honestly, it looked a lot like pictures of Switzerland that I've seen - all against the backdrop of the Bavarian Alps. I told my mama that she didn't need to go to Switzerland anymore - she's now seen its doppelganger in Germany!
As we drove into Hohenschwangau at 11 am though, it was at the HEIGHT of tourist hour! All the people who had driven in from the nearby cities had arrived, trains and buses from Fussen have een dropping off hundreds of bodies at a time, and the tour buses had already unloaded thousands onto the tiny streets of the little village.
Parking in Hohenschwangau is a pain - and we ended up at the bottom of the hill paying 6 Euros for the privilege. We tried checking into our hotel...but they lost our reservation. Meaning they screwed it up 😑. I had originally booked a family room because Raymond was coming with us - but he received news in July that he couldn't because the American office was sending him on a business trip right in the middle of his national holiday - the entire reason we booked the cruise when we did. When Raymond couldn't make it, I booked a triple room instead, then canceled the family room. Yeah...someone in the hotel canceled BOTH rooms, even though I only canceled one. I started getting super nervous since I knew the hotels nearby were booked full - but they made good on their screw up and put us in the family room they had available at a discounted rate - only about 15 Euros more than we were going to pay for their triple room!
The hotel is adorable - it's super clean, super comfortable, quaint and incredibly convenient if the whole reason you go to Hohenschwangau is to see the castles. Which let's face it - no one goes to Hohenschwangau to NOT visit the castles. The hotel is LITERALLY next door to the ticketing office, so it's super duper convenient, especially since we had to pick our tickets up BY 8:15 am.
Being that it was around noon by the time the room situation was straightened out - we just stayed in the dining room of Hotel Alpenstuben and had lunch. For our first meal in Germany, my dad and I wanted to try German food. He had pork knuckle with sauerkraut while I had the schnitzel. My mama...she had spaghetti. Yeah...
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| hello Neuschwanstein! (the whole reason we drove all the way here from Munich) |
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| it's our hotel! Literally on the hill that leads to the castles |
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| hello pork knuckle |
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| Schnitzel and fries. How can you say no to all this fried goodness??? |
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| My mama is not into German food. But she's into fries! |
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| non-German food. Mom: "this isn't as good as the spaghetti we had in Italy". Well yes, because we're in Germany. |
Because we didn't want to lug our suitcases from the bottom of the hill, we decided to just pack enough in our backpacks to make it through the one night stay. So we trudged down, grabbed what we needed for just that night, and we went back to our room and promptly konked out for 3 hours. Jetlag is real yo.
As for our family suite - it's 2 rooms. A triple room that's connected to a double room that's connected to the bathroom. So we got an extra bonus room! My parents stayed in the triple room and my dad gave her the big bed and he slept in the twin! I got the double room - I put my stuff on one bed and I slept on the other. I also had a skylight I could open in my little room - which I did - standing on the nightstand to poke my head out to look around. Because that's how I roll.
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| the entrance of the room - directly into the double room. I took the photo from my bed because I was lazy. And I had my crap everywhere at this point. |
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| the other twin bed - the door on the left is the front door - then the door on the right leads to the bath. |
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| the triple room my parents stayed in. The door on the right is open - it leads directly into the little double room I stayed in |
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| the little seating area, table and desk - on the bottom you can see a corner of the twin bed under the eaves my dad slept in. |
The bathroom was long and skinny - and while it wasn't luxurious, it was SUPER clean. No complaints at all.
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| toilet on one end... |
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| ...shower on the other. |
Our room was super cute - with a lot of (what looked like) pine - it had a lodgy feel, but brighter. We were on the 3rd floor in an old building with no elevator - which was why it was smart to just each take a backpack with essentials for our one night stay. We also brought in a supermarket tote of snacks we got from Lidl. It was an incredibly comfortable space for us - a lovely landing spot after a long flight and a long drive. We also had a view out the window at Neuschwanstein, which excited me to no end. I had a skylight in my room that I could pop open, and I ended up standing on the nightstand to stick my head out to look around for fun.
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| view from our room |
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| view of the castle from my skylight. Yes, this was taken when I was standing on the nightstand. |
We didn't wake up until after 6 pm, when the crowds had left. We went out and wandered the empty streets to see what the village looked like when it wasn't inundated with tourists with selfie sticks - it was very small and very quiet. Soooo weird and completely different from what it looked like when we arrived, where there were people ALL over the roads and car and tour buses jockeying for position.
Instead of eating at the restaurant again as it was the only place open past 7pm (my parents didn't want to), we made do with the breads and snacks we had purchased earlier in the day at Lidl. After fortifying ourselves with croissants, pretzels, coffee, fruit and cookies, we showered and went to bed again. We had to get up early the next morning and start a long and grueling day of touring followed by another 2 hour drive to Rothenburg ob der Tauber.
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